Pergamino

Con los terroristas… thoughts on The Harlem Shake

It was only last week when my eyes were opened and I became aware of this new craze. I had no idea what it was all about until recently. In case someone reads this and does not know what I’m talking about, the Harlem Shake consists of a 30 second video clip with the same song, where a guy (or gal) dances alone surrounded by an uninterested crowd. When the music reaches its peak, the video cuts abruptly and you see all of the people dancing and doing random stupid stuff all over the place. You Tube is full of them and I have seriously cracked up at several of them, and I do confess, I’d like to do one too, but I think I’m kind of late for it.

Now, the thing is, that when I first heard the music and heard the guy say: “con los terroristas”, I thought that whoever said that had to be a Puerto Rican. Well, last week, on one of our local newspapers, it turns out that indeed, it is a Puerto Rican who says it, but the track is a mix of a hip hop song with something else from a reggaeton song where the guy says “con los terroristas” which means, ‘with the terrorists’. I have no idea what the original song is and to be honest, I hate reggaeton, so let’s say I’m just happy with the surreal absurdity of the intro “con los terroristas” and whatever happens during the following 20 seconds of it. I mean, after a while you do get tired of it, but, regardless, I am putting here the ones that made me laugh the most, in case you want to watch them. They’re 30 seconds each and full of craziness. Enjoy!